Regional Red ListA focal point for national red lists and species action plans2015-03-03T17:31:46Zhttp://www.nationalredlist.org/feed/atom/emma1http://www.nationalredlist.org/?p=33462015-03-03T17:31:46Z2015-03-03T17:31:46ZThe full text can be found here.]]>

]]>0Monni Bohmhttp://www.nationalredlist.org/?p=32972015-01-29T15:52:07Z2015-01-29T15:52:07ZThe Chico Mendes Institute for Nature Conservation (ICMBio), an office of the Brazilian Ministry of Environment, completed a comprehensive conservation assessment of Brazilian animals in December 2014. The pdf will be available soon from http://www.icmbio.gov.br/portal/ and will also be published, along with the data, here on the National Red List website. This will be the largest single NRL assessment submitted by a country and we are delighted to be able to share these results soon.

ICMBio had a target of assessing 10,000 species and consequently began collaboration with IUCN in 2010. From 2010 to 2014 a total of 12,256 taxa were assessed, including all vertebrates known to occur in Brazil. A total of 8,924 vertebrates were assessed: 732 mammals, 1,980 birds, 732 reptiles, 973 amphibians, 4,507 fishes (3,131 freshwater, 1,363 marine species, including 152 elasmobranchs and five myxines). Additionally, 3,332 invertebrates were assessed, including crustaceans, molluscs, insects and many other groups.

To assess the conservation status of all these animals, the ICMBio conducted 73 assessment workshops and four review workshops for proofing and validating the assessments. This gigantic effort relied upon the participation of over 1,300 specialists, several of them Red List Authorities and/or members of IUCN specialist groups.

Habitat loss or disturbance, mainly resulting from the expansion of agriculture and cattle ranching, urbanisation, and large constructions like hydroelectric power plants, ports, and mining plants are the main threat to mainland species. For marine species, the main threat is overfishing, either direct or accidental.

The assessment found that 1,182 species (9.6% of all species assessed) are threatened, nine of which are still to be described (five snakes, two birds, one mammal and one fish). The undescribed species were not included in the official red lists published on 18 December 2014. The official red list (threatened species only), containing 1,173 taxa, included 110 mammals (15% of all mammals assessed), 234 birds (12%), 80 reptiles (11%), 41 amphibians (4%), 353 bony fishes (8%), 55 elasmobranchs (32%), one myxine (20%) and 299 invertebrates (9%). Among these species, one is Extinct in the Wild, 318 are Critically Endangered, 406 are Endangered and 448 are Vulnerable. Furthermore, five species are Extinct and an additional five are extinct in Brazil (Regionally Extinct). Finally, 314 (2.5%) species were assessed as Near Threatened and 1,669 (13.6%) were regarded as Data Deficient.

ICMBio is now focusing on determining conservation strategies and preparing action plans aiming to combat the main threats and reduce the risk of extinction of threatened taxa in order to remove them from the threatened categories of the Red List (in line with the CBD’s Target 12: “By 2020, the extinction of known threatened species has been prevented and their conservation status, particularly of those most in decline, has been improved and sustained”), to avoid Near Threatened species becoming threatened and to enhance knowledge on Data Deficient taxa.

Rosana Subira

Edited by Emma Garnett and Monika Bohm

]]>0Monni Bohmhttp://regionalredlist.zslsites.org/?p=32762015-01-07T12:02:10Z2014-12-23T14:02:03ZIUCN Bangladesh have been working on the project “Updating Species Red List of Bangladesh” since 2013. Yesterday, the project, which includes Red List assessments for birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, freshwater fishes, crustaceans and butterflies, saw the launch of its website at www.iucnredlistbd.org. The launch was part of an event to celebrate 50 Years of the IUCN Red [...]]]>

IUCN Bangladesh have been working on the project “Updating Species Red List of Bangladesh” since 2013. Yesterday, the project, which includes Red List assessments for birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, freshwater fishes, crustaceans and butterflies, saw the launch of its website at www.iucnredlistbd.org. The launch was part of an event to celebrate 50 Years of the IUCN Red List.

IUCN Bangladesh website screenshot

Check out the website to find out more about the project, the Red Listing process adopted by Bangladesh, latest news and of course the Red List assessments themselves. Assessments are ongoing, but there are already a number of them published on the website.

As part of this project, IUCN Bangladesh has provided training to more than 100 assessors. Find out about the latest assessor training workshop, held in November 2014, in our blog.

]]>0Monni Bohmhttp://regionalredlist.zslsites.org/?p=32732015-01-09T10:03:13Z2014-12-19T14:43:14ZThe full publication can be accessed here.]]>

]]>0Monni Bohmhttp://regionalredlist.zslsites.org/?p=32702014-12-23T13:59:48Z2014-12-19T11:44:44ZWith 2014 drawing to an end, it is time to reflect on what we have achieved this year. Turns out, from the perspective of the National Red List project, this has been quite a lot, from extensive website updates to an expanded coverage of species assessments on our database, making an impact at the CBD [...]]]>

With 2014 drawing to an end, it is time to reflect on what we have achieved this year. Turns out, from the perspective of the National Red List project, this has been quite a lot, from extensive website updates to an expanded coverage of species assessments on our database, making an impact at the CBD CoP in Korea, public engagement and training Red List assessors. So here are some highlights from 2014:

Since January 2014, we added a total of 53,744 species assessments to the National Red List database – this means we have expanded the existing database to a total of 133,750 assessments.

We presented a report on the importance of National Red Lists and current coverage to the 12thmeeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. This had considerable impact in pushing interest in National Red List development, and has featured in a recent news release of the Asia Biodiversity Conservation and Database Network (ABCDNet; http://www.nationalredlist.org/national-red-list-global-coverage-and-applications/), where you can find out more about it. You can also access the original report here.

In summer 2014, we reorganised our website, specifically to include much better guidance on how to prepare National Red Lists. We are hoping to expand this section in the future, particularly through contributions of fellow National Red Listers on their experiences running Red list projects, carrying out assessments, securing funding, engaging the general public and policy makers – or any of the many aspects of National Red list development. If you would like to contribute, please contact us at info@nationalredlist.org

We were actively involved in Red List assessor training workshops in Russia (read the blog here) and Bangladesh (read the blog here), which in return also provided much opportunity for highlighting our National Red List project. We are hoping for more collaboration in the coming year!

We had a very successful celebration of 50 years of the IUCN Red List by means of a public seminar held here at ZSL London Zoo on the past, present and future of the IUCN Red List. Of course, National Red Lists featured prominently. You can access the talk here, or listen to the proceedings of the evening again by accessing the audio files here.

We also had the pleasure of working with two amazing National Red List Interns. Without these guys, our database would surely still stand at a mere (!) 80,000 species assessments. So a big thank you to Sarah Johnson and Eve Englefield on all their hard work. And if you want to know what it’s like to be a National Red List intern, you can read Eve’s take on all things National Red List here.

All that remains for us to do before 2014 draws to a close is to wish everybody a very happy New Year, and much Red List success in 2015!

]]>0Monni Bohmhttp://regionalredlist.zslsites.org/?p=32482014-12-23T14:06:28Z2014-12-09T15:29:41Z You have never really been stuck in a traffic jam until you get to Dhaka – and then the whole word takes on a new dimension. It’s a sea of cars, trucks, buses, rickshaws (400,000 of them!), CNGs (tuk tuks), hand drawn carriages, horse drawn carriages – oh yes, and goats. It is also [...]]]>

Traffic jam Dhaka style

You have never really been stuck in a traffic jam until you get to Dhaka – and then the whole word takes on a new dimension. It’s a sea of cars, trucks, buses, rickshaws (400,000 of them!), CNGs (tuk tuks), hand drawn carriages, horse drawn carriages – oh yes, and goats. It is also one of the best places to people watch. Or to reflect on the previous days of work. I had arrived in Dhaka three days earlier with my co-facilitator, Catherine Sayer from the IUCN Red List Unit. We had arrived in the early hours of Saturday morning, and had so far been living a very sheltered existence. Our task: to run an IUCN Red List assessor training workshop at the request of IUCN Bangladesh, our lovely, caring and welcoming hosts.

It’s probably fair to say that on the day of our arrival, all we had to do was sleep and eat. Our hosts had organised a detailed schedule of room service for us, so all we had to do was open the doors of our respective hotel rooms to receive the next load of food every once in a while. All a bit confusing when you are overtired after a long plane journey, but then food is overall a relatively easy concept to grasp. So we ate and slept. And eventually checked out the workshop location at the Spectra Convention Centre right across the road. Everything was in place, so the next day we could kick off the workshop bright (yet jetlagged) and early (yet late, if you consider we were still on UK time).

IUCN Bangladesh Red List assessor training

Day 1 and thirty eager faces welcomed us to the workshop, in addition to the Project Manager for IUCN Bangladesh Shahad Mahabub Chowdhury, the Country Representative of IUCN Bangladesh Mr. Ishtiaq Uddin Ahmad, Md. Akbar Hossain from the Bangladesh Forest Department – and the very helpful and absolutely vital IUCN Bangladesh support staff! After general introductions and expectations for the next four days, we got straight into business. Early topics covered what the IUCN Red List actually is, and how the assessment process works. Then we moved straight on to the theory behind Red List assessments: the terms and concepts used by the IUCN within the Categories and Criteria. This was no doubt going to be the most confusing part of the day/workshop (I suspect it always is), as participants have to grapple with the concepts of “generation length”, ”locations” (my personal favourite, but I fear I may be quite alone in this; NB this is not about where a species is found, but depends on the area which can be affected by a single threat event; there you have it!) and “extreme fluctuations”. The confusion was not going to go away though as the day pretty much ended by looking at the different types of data quality which can feed into Red List assessments. Can you tell your “observed” from your “suspected” and “inferred”? No? Well, Catherine Sayer will stop at nothing to make sure you do.

Understandably then that, despite our best efforts, the IUCN Red List Happiness Index (HI) fell just short of complete happiness at the end of day 1 (though only just, see photo). This was to be expected. After all, we had only just ventured into the magnificent world of Red Listing.

Days 2 and 3 got everybody properly into Red Listing. Having learned about all five criteria of the IUCN Red List and about how to apply the Red List Categories and Criteria at the national level, we tried our hand at assessing species from Bangladesh. This really forms the heart and soul of the training workshop, and carrying out assessments of Bangladeshi species became a recurring theme over the next couple of days. From quiet beginnings, our working groups morphed into proper discussion groups, making this a very interactive part of the workshop. And when the groups started discussing “locations” within and between each other, I really couldn’t stop smiling from ear to ear! It is always great to see the enthusiasm people bring with them to these workshops – specifically if this enthusiasm is aimed at my favourite Red List concept!

And so on Day 2 and 3 we learned about the Asian elephant, river dolphins, Gomphostemma salarkhaniana (a species of flowering plant with only 40 mature individuals left in Bangladesh), the black soft-shell turtle, the Bengal fox, the ruddy kingfisher and the Malayan sun bear – to name only a few of the species we covered. Which is why this is also the most interesting part of the workshop for the trainers – this gives us a chance to learn about the country’s flora and fauna (until then we were only really familiar with the inside of our hotel, the convention centre where the workshop was held, the yumminess of Bengali food, and were soon to learn about the joys of eating with our hands and chewing paan)!

The reason why we can see a pronounced dip in the HI on Day 3 is no doubt the fact that there was also a one-hour knowledge test scheduled for this day. Understandably, all participants seemed a bit nervous about this – though ultimately this is a test of how good the trainers are at explaining things! We all got through it though and the great thing is that the test gives us as trainers a chance to identify those areas which are not yet entirely clear. So Day 4 started with another feedback session on test results and explanations of various issues which had arisen as part of the test – and a final lengthy discussion of “locations”, so I was happy. Seemingly, we did our job well enough this time round, as the HI reached maximum happiness by the end of Day 4!

IUCN Bangladesh Red List assessor training

And why wouldn’t it – after all, this means another 30 Red List assessors were trained for the Bangladesh National Red List assessment. This is a truly ambitious project, focussing on a number of species groups from vertebrates to invertebrates, with a likely future extension to also include plants. Before this workshop, 90 assessors had already been trained. Now the number stands at over 100 – which means that this is also a very ambitious and highly successful project in terms of capacity building and training.

Best of all, this is also a very friendly and welcoming project. I think it is fair to say that both Catherine and I were very sad when we eventually had to say goodbye to our new found Bangladeshi IUCN family and all our new friends. And so, on my way to the airport while stuck in another – if lesser – traffic jam, I contemplated how Bangladesh surely must be one of the most welcoming countries in the world. How grateful I am to our IUCN Bangladesh friends for literally looking after us 24-7. How easy it is to make new friends in Bangladesh. How much I will miss everybody – particularly everybody’s smiling faces in the cold doom and gloom of London in winter. And how much I need to come back to visit again in the not so far future.

Monni Bohm & Catherine Sayer and the IUCN Bangladesh Red List team

]]>0Monni Bohmhttp://regionalredlist.zslsites.org/?p=32432014-12-03T14:53:45Z2014-12-03T14:53:45ZThe full publication can be accessed here.]]>